Rarely has there ever been a game of this scale where it is so easy to see all of the love and craft put into such a game that felt like the devs had so much fun making it. Everyone was at their A-game, everyone was in harmony when making such a game as Hi-Fi Rush. It's one of those rare games where it made me go "Man, I fucking love video games."

Why I claim such love and craft is how jam-packed Hi-Fi Rush is with its details. The environments are set to be in sync with the music, making it feel more alive than any game world. This could be the liveliest game I have ever played. Literally everything revolves around the concept of rhythm here. 2D cutscenes, footsteps, combat, platforming, the environments. I absolutely LOVE the directing of the cutscenes. The animators of both 2D and 3D cutscenes were instructed to animate everything to the beat. John Johanas took inspiration from Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead and it shows. Also love how it can seamlessly transition from gameplay to 3D cutscenes to 2D cutscenes.

The way I see it, action games such as Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, and God of War always had rhythm to them. The best players of these kinds of games that can pull off double digit combos always had the rhythm of these combos down to a tee. Royal guarding in Devil May Cry 3, 4, and 5 was about timing your rhythmic parries in response to enemy attacks. So it makes perfect sense for there to be a rhythm action game hybrid here, making combat encounters feel even more so like dances. At first, it may seem weird how you can only dash 3 times before a cooldown since they are done in quarter notes and 4 quarter notes make the usual 4/4 measure, but if you complete that measure with a light attack, you still gain distance with that attack.

Now getting into both rhythm and combo heavy action games can be a challenge, which is why I understand moves only being buttons rather than most moves being directional inputs in order to make things less complicated while under the pressure of a metronome. In spite of that, Hi-Fi Rush isn't really that mashy. It still challenging on Hard for me. Getting into rhythm in Hi-Fi Rush is more approachable than other rhythm action games in part due to it still being a combo action game. Hi-Fi Rush does the thing where once an attack connects, you hit another attack button and it gets you back into the rhythm and deals more damage. I don't know what the first game to do such a mechanic is, but I'm first reminded of the Critical Combo Strikes from Batman: Arkham Asylum. It may be more challenging using Ebony and Ivory to keep enemies in the air in DMC as gunning them focuses you on an enemy. Focusing on gunning an enemy leaves you vulnerable to other enemies. But summoning Peppermint to do the same thing in Hi-Fi Rush opens Chai up for more opportunities since he is free from focusing on one enemy.

Recently, there have been some games that are divisive mainly due to the writing. I'm talking about Neon White, High On Life, and Forspoken. I've only played Neon White and I thought the writing there was hit-and-mostly-miss, so if some people are putting Hi-Fi Rush among those games, then why do I really like the writing here? I swear. I love every character in the party. It's cheesy and corny as hell, but I really like the banter. I don't know what it is about the dialogue, but it didn't feel blatantly pandering and obnoxious. It doesn't solely rely on its comedy on dialogue, there are some gameplay jokes, 4th wall breaks that aren't like characters spouting "This trope is bad, but we are not like said trope", and it also uses the music to the strength of its comedy. It's a simple story with a group of heroes taking down the big bad, but within the world, the employees of Vandelay are being exploited. The dialogue between the antagonists and the worldbuilding make for the theme of the environments about terrible workforce environments. It sets this foil between Chai and Kale between how both use their friends/employees, Kale is abusive to his employees while Chai really cares for them. It all culminates into the penultimate level which is one of the most uplifting, soulful moments I have ever felt.

Hi-Fi Rush is in its own pedigree of design. I am absolutely smitten. SMITTEN I TELL YOU! The fact that this even shadow dropped shows Tango's confidence in the game. In an age of $70 AAA games, Hi-Fi Rush lives up to those games for only $30 and is worth every single penny and more. Aside from Halo, Hi-Fi Rush now comes to mind whenever I think "Xbox" because it really feels like a game from the Xbox-Xbox 360 era in terms of personality.

The writing & art style are excellent. I never actually watched Avatar: The Last Airbender as a kid, but the art style seems reminiscent of that.

Gameplay seems simple at first, but by the end has you juggling a lot of different mechanics (theoretically to the beat, if you actually have rhythm unlike me). The final few bosses were really tough for me to beat on the default difficulty, and had like 5 phases each. Luckily, each phase served as a checkpoint I'd come back to after I died (over & over & over).

A fair amount of new stuff unlocks after the credits roll. It looks like there's a decent New Game+ endgame that has you going back to each level to do battle challenges hidden behind previously-locked (and often well-hidden) doors. There's also added character customization.

For a music-based game, the music mostly just kind of sinks into the background, and you just pay attention to the beat. About 10% of the music is 25-year-old licensed Nine Inch Nails & Prodigy songs -- and there's a "Streamer Mode" to replace those songs to prevent Twitch from copyright-striking you from space. I'm not complaining, but they probably could've saved some money and stuck to the totally-competent in-house music that makes up most of the game's soundtrack.

This game looks fantastic. A+ presentation. This cartoon/comic book style has been done before, but nowhere near as well as it's been done here. This might be one of the best looking games I've seen.

The combat is good. Hitting enemies to the beat is satisfying. It's a proper action game with a combo tree that reminds me that developers from PlatinumGames work at Tango Gameworks. Mixing in the characters you meet throughout the game makes it even more fun. It can get a bit annoying when fighting a lot of enemies as my combo finisher kept getting interrupted by enemies attacking me. Having to dodge or parry right when I'm about to do the satisfying combo finisher can feel really anti-climactic.

This is a rhythm game, and I like how everything happens to the beat: movement, player attacks, enemy attacks, and even objects in the environment bounce to the beat. Too bad the music isn't good. It doesn't move me at all. It doesn't make me want to bop my head or tap my foot, and it doesn't get me pumped to fight. I swear there was only one song that I liked in the entire game. It was the song playing in Track 8 which is the museum level, and that really showed me how much better this game could be if the music was good. I don't think I've ever had an issue with the music in one of these kinds of action games or rhythm games, and it drains some life out of the game.

The story is pretty solid, but I never found the characters in it all that amusing. The humor in the game is pretty spotty too. There some good bits here and there, but there are plenty that fall flat. The game loses some of its charm because of this.

I don't know what I expected when I decided to play Hi Fi Rush. For some reason the art style constantly reminded me of Sunset Overdrive and I wasn't really in the mood to play that type of game. When I found out it was a hack and slash I had to get in and see what Hi Fi Rush had to offer.

Lets get this straight, I loved this game! I absolutely adored the silly characters, campy story, and the banger music! Each level of Hi Fi Rush is constantly engaging. Fighting through "choruses" of enemies never got old and there were so many different opponents packed into the relatively short campaign. I'm serious, they were introducing new enemies up until the end!!

Tango Gameworks really succeeded in creating combat that felt like a dance to music. The key gimmick here is battling to the beat and its great! The move list doesn't exactly compare to something like DMC 5, but it feels large and (more importantly) powerful to hit combos. The music is key to this game's combat and it never falls short! This game is as great to listen to as it is play and this may be the first game I have ever thought that about. I was so unbelievably impressed by the rhythm elements to the combat.

This experience would have already gotten 5 stars, then I beat it and found all of the extra post-game modes. The one I actually spent time playing acts as a roguelike where you lose all your stats/powers and earn them back as you fight through waves of enemies. It literally provides endless gameplay! This game didn't even need to provide this to me, but it went the extra mile!

Overall, I think any fan of hack and slash action games will have a great time playing Hi Fi Rush. It is pure bliss to play and I cannot recommend it enough! Please play this game!

Group Discussion Podcast:

My Final Thoughts:

When people ask me what music/rhythm games I would recommend, I always default to these 3 games - Rhythm Heaven, Patapon, and lastly of course, Rock Band. Each of these games have taken the whole music/rhythm game genre and made it into its own type of masterpiece. Also, big shoutout to Parappa the Raper of course. These games represent the masterclass of rhythm/music games - redefining what it means for a game to be a part of that genre.

I firmly and strongly believe that Hi-Fi Rush, without a doubt in my mind, belongs to be a part of that master class of music/rhythm games as a hack and slash adventure game

Like I said in question 1, this game is the living embodiment of an Edgar Wright film, but in video game form. Everything, the music, the environment, the combat, the cutscenes, the enemies, your character, everything everywhere all at once plays perfectly on beat. And I absolutely love it.

The visuals remind me of a Saturday morning cartoon series we would all wake up extra early just to watch - and the way the game weaves in-game cutscenes with the 2D cutscenes seamlessly is just a sight to behold. It’s pretty common with a lot of Triple A titles like Uncharted, and God of War, but seeing them do this with 2D and 3D is so freakin’ cool - gosh dang it video games are cool.

The combat has so many layers to it as well - simple and easy to pickup, with enough complexity to make you pull of some insane combos. They could have taken the easy route and just let it be Chai performing simple combos all by himself to the music, but nope. They were like, screw that nonsense, we’re gonna add 3 Support Characters that can be used to target enemies’ weak points, a pretty robust parrying system, ultimates, new combos you can purchase for your characters and support character, an upgradable chip system, there’s so much to unpack - but it never feels overwhelming. These in-game combat systems feed into each other, and everything just feels in sync and in place - I love it.

And then the post-game content, like what? They still do that in 2023? I freakin’ love this game, video games are just so freakin’ cool, video games are such a badass medium, and I am glad that Video Game Book Club exists, cuz I probably would have missed this masterpiece of a game, or made the silly decision to throw it in the backlog.

Go play this game, go buy this game, I still can’t believe it only costs $30 - that is insane.

Easiest 9 out of 10 I am giving out.